Vitaly V. Fedorchuk, 89

Former KGB leader

Vitaly V. Fedorchuk, who rose through the Soviet intelligence and police services to become the leader of the KGB and then the country's hard-nosed chief law enforcement officer, died Feb. 29 in Moscow, the Federal Security Service, the main KGB successor agency, announced.

From late 1982 to early 1986, Mr. Fedorchuk was interior minister, making him the Soviet Union's top police officer, in charge of uniformed officers from detectives to game wardens. The job's high visibility contrasted with his covert past.

The barrel-chested, blunt-speaking minister arrested corrupt officials and thieves in fields ranging from trucking to finance, attacked chronic drunkenness as a cause of crime with puritanical relish and purged his forces of "dull" chiefs, ideological laggards and "strange people."

He sought more death sentences and increased the pay of law enforcement officers by 70 percent. He immediately exposed the corruption of his powerful predecessor, Gen. Nikolai A. Shchelokov.

This enforcement blitz was a precursor of Mikhail S. Gorbachev's perestroika reform effort in the second half of the 1980s. At the time, Western analysts said Mr. Fedorchuk's tactics exemplified the "neo-Stalinism" of his boss, the Soviet leader Yuri V. Andropov.

Before being named interior minister in December 1982, Mr. Fedorchuk was for seven months chairman of the Committee for State Security, the vast, shadowy security agency usually known by its Russian initials, KGB.